Warrior To The End

He tackled motor neurone disease with the same determination that drove him to rugby stardom.

- Jana Van Der Merwe

IT WAS a sunny Easter weekend and Joost van der Westhuizen and a longtime doctor friend were clowning around in one of the swimming pools at the luxury Sun City resort in North West. 

During their horseplay Dr Henry Kelbrick suspected something was wrong: Joost’s right arm seemed much weaker than his left. The doctor was unsettled by it but didn’t say anything at first. Then he noticed Joost was slurring slightly and realised something serious was going on.

After they returned home Henry accompanied the once superfit Bok scrumhalf to an appointment with Pretoria neurologist Dr Pieter Kritzinger. The specialist confirmed Henry’s suspicions and a provisional diagnosis was made: incurable, degenerative motor neurone disease (MND). Joost was 40.

The disease interferes with the brain’s signals to the voluntary muscles and later the involuntary muscles too. It usually begins in the arms and legs and eventually all the muscles in the body stop working. A second neurologist confirmed the devastating diagnosis. 

That week in May 2011 changed Joost’s life for ever. It was the startt of a battle he’d fight for six years, at first determined he’d find a way to beat it but later making peace with the debilitating effects on his body.

HOPING the doctors were wrong, Joost flew to America two months after the diagnosis in search of answers. The news wasn’t good: MND specialist Dr Erik Pioro of Cleveland, Ohio, confirmed Joost had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), the most common form of deadly MND.